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YALE PEABODY MUSEUM
oF Natura History
Number 71 November 14, 1962 New Haven, Conn.

SCOPELOGADUS (?) CAPISTRANENSIS,
A NEW FOSSIL MELAMPHAID (PISCES:
TELEOSTEI) FROM CAPISTRANO BEACH,

CALIFORNIA

ALFRED W. EBELING

Melamphaidae, a family of bathypelagic fishes that hitherto
has been known only from living material, comprises 5 genera
and about 383° species. Regan (1911), followed by Ebeling
(1962), referred it to the Stephanoberyciformes, an order of
peculiar spiny-rayed deep-sea fishes allied with the Berycifor-
mes, but having a hypertrophied open cephalic sensory canal
system lined with delicate bony ridges, usually a single trian-
gular supramaxillary bone, often a regressed lateral line, no
orbitosphenoid bone, and possibly various other adaptations
to life in the deep sea. Ebeling (1962) presented a key to the
5 melamphaid genera: Melamphaes Giinther 1864, Sio Moss
1962, Scopelogadus Vaillant 1888, Poromitra Goode and Bean
1883, and Scopeloberyx Zugmayer, 1911. Ebeling and Weed
(in press) revised Scopelogadus, which contains three living
species, including two subspecies.

Scopelogadus, like other Melamphaidae, is mostly circum-
tropical at depths between 100 meters and the bottom. SS.
beanti, however, is antitropical and inhabits both the temperate

2 Postilla Peabody Museum INO rman

North Atlantic and the region of the Subtropical Convergence,
which is an area of sinking of water masses at about 40°S lat.
(Ebeling and Weed, in press).

Very few fossils of bathypelagic fishes have been reported.
Only the Gonostomatidae, Paralepididae, and Myctophidae are
listed in Berg (1940) as other than Recent (‘Miocene to Re-
cent”). To my knowledge, the only fossil melamphaids were
collected by Dr. Andreas B. Rechnitzer on May 2, 1956, from
Miocene shales along the sea cliff south of Capistrano Beach
in Orange County, California. Because counts and measure-
ments of these two small specimens generally agree with those
of Scopelogadus, they are provisionally placed in this genus
(Table 1).

The Capistrano Miocene locality consists mainly of finely
laminated diatomaceous shale and mudstone. From the included
Foraminifera fauna, Dr. M. N. Bramlette of the University of
California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography inferred that
the shale-mudstone deposits probably accumulated on the sea
floor below 100 fathoms during the Upper Miocene Age (Mil-
ler, 1951). Dr. Carl L. Hubbs (pers. comm.), also of Scripps,
added that although the lower parts contain algae (20 species
thus far discovered), a few fish (herring), and many fish scales,
the upper parts are bathypelagic deposits, in which have been
found, besides the melamphaids, fossils of the bathypelagic fish
Cyclothone and of the pelagic crustacean Pleuroncodes. Miller
(1951) described a new fossil species of petrel. Oceanodroma
hubbsi, which was also found near the bathypelagic site. More
recently, a grunion-like shallow water fish (Atherinidae) was
uncovered. As suggested by Dr. Hubbs, it would appear from
this stratification of faunas that the deposits originated in a
shallow basin, which gradually deepened as a result of either a
rise in sea level or a depression of the bottom.

Scopelogadus (?) capistranensis, new species
Fig. 1
The following description is mainly of the holotype. In-

formation from an impression of a second, smaller specimen
compliments data on numbers of pectoral and pelvic rays and

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4 Postilla Peabody Museum Nox a

the position of the pelvic fin relative to that of the pectoral.
Additional characters are given in Table 1.

Body with greatest depth, at pelvic insertion, about 0.33
standard length. Caudal peduncle with length 2.5 times its
least depth. Distance from tip of snout to base of first anal ray
almost 0.7 standard length. Head large, 0.45 standard length ;
its depth about 0.7 its length: 3 or more weak spines faintly
visible at posteroventral angle of preopercle. Branchiostega!
rays at least 6.

NSS

Fig. 1. Scopelogadus (?) capistranensis, holotype YPM No. 3965, 38.7 mm
standard length.

Dorsal fin with about 13 rays (total); origin at middle of
body: distance from tip of snout to base of first ray equals
distance from this ray to base of caudal fin, which also equals
distance from tip of snout to base of pectoral fin. Anal fin
with 9 or 10 rays (total); originates under fourth from last
dorsal ray. Pectoral fin with more than 12 or 13 rays, possibly
15. Pelvic fin with about 8 rays; inserts directly under pectoral.
Caudal fin with 19 principal rays.

Vertebrae on holotype 10 precaudal plus 14 caudal (the first
caudal vertebra overlies the first distinct haemal spine, the
urostyle is counted as one element) ; in smaller specimen about
24 to 26. The arch of the first haemal spine apparently lacks
the anteroventrally projecting spurs characteristic of some
species in Melamphaes and Scopeloberya.

MATERIAL

The types are two impressions of whole specimens, cata-
logued Yale University, Peabody Museum Paleontological Col-

Nov. 14, 1962 Scopelogadus (?) capistranensis 5

lections No. 3965. The larger, standard length 38.7 mm, is
selected as holotype. The vertebral column and most of the
fin rays are easily discernible on the holotype (Fig. 1). The
impression of the smaller specimen is much fainter and _ there-
fore difficult to interpret. On the holotype are impressions of
various head bones, including the line of fusion of the hyo-
mandibular with the front of the preopercle, sections of the
opercular series, parts of the jaws, branchiostegal rays, fin
supports, and the caudal skeleton.

DERIVATION OF NAME

The species name capistranensis refers to the locality of dis-
covery of the fossils.

IDENTIFICATION WitH Scopelogadus

The fact that Scopelogadus (7?) capistranensis has 19 prin-
cipal caudal rays and thoracic pelvic fins places it with the
berycoid-lke fishes. Its general shape, positioning of fins, num-
bers of fin rays, etc. further refer it to the Melamphaidae. A
definite identification of the fossils with Scopelogadus was im-
possible, although the specimens are provisionally referred to
this genus by virtue of comparisons with each melamphaid
genus. In Table 1 are listed the only characters measureable on
the fossils, along with ranges of values for all five melamphaid

genera. At the bottom of each ‘

‘genus column” are: first, the
total number of characters whose ranges exclude values for
S. capistranensis and second, this number of disagreements for
meristic characters only. Both Scopelogadus and Poromitra
had only two disagreements. Even though the next lowest pro-
portion of disagreements, 4/18, of Scopeloberyax is not signifi-
cantly different from 2/18 X?=0.20 with one d.f., 0.75>p>
0.45), the fossils agree with Scopelogadus in both meristic
counts and general overall shape, which associate them most
strongly with this genus.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to Dr. Andreas B. Rechnitzer, formerly of the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla and the Naval

6 Postilla Peabody Museum Nov Wl

Electronics Laboratory, San Diego for donating the fossils
and to Dr. Carl L. Hubbs for much useful information on the
constitution of the fossil beds.

Lirerature CIrep

Berg, L. S., 1940. Classification of fishes, both recent and fossil. Tray.
Instit. Zool. Acad. Sci. U.S.S.R., 5: 1-517.

Ebeling, A. W., 1962. Melamphaidae I, Systematics and zoogeography of
the species in the bathypelagic fish genus Melamphaes Giinther. Dana-
Rep. No. 58. 164 p.

Ebeling, A. W. and W. H. Weed. Melamphaidae III. Sytematics and
distribution of the species in the bathypelagic fish genus Scopelogadus
Vaillant. Dana-Rep. (in press).

Goode, G. B. and 'T. H. Bean, 1895. Oceanic ichthyology.... (Smithsonian
Contrib. Know. nos. 981, 982). Washington. Smithsonian Institution. 555
p- Atlas of plates.

Giinther, A., 1864. Addenda. In Catalogue of the Physostomi, containing
the families Siluridae, Characinidae, Haplochitonidae, Sternoptychidae,
Scopelidae, Stomiatidae in the collection of the British Museum. Cat.
Fish. British Mus., 5: 1-455. London.

Miller, L.., 1951. A Miocene petrel from California. The Condor, 53: 78-80.

Moss, S. A., 1962. Melamphaidae II. A new melamphaid genus, Sio, with a
redescription of Sio nordenskjéldii (Loénnberg). Dana-Rep, no. 56,
10 p.

Regan, C. T., 1911. The anatomy and classification of the teleostean fishes
of the orders Berycomorphi and Xenoberyces. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.
(Css te) 17/8 det)

Vaillant, L., 1888. Expéditions scientifiques du Travailleur et due 'Talis-
man pendant les années 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883....Poissons. Paris, G.
Masson. 406 p.

Zugmayer, E., 1911. Diagnoses de poissons nouveaus provenant des cam-
pagnes du yacht “Princesse-Alice” (1901 4 1910). Bull. Instit. Oceanogr.
Monaco, (193): 1-14.

Date Due

i574
MAR ——1976

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